Time Out

Declan got his first time-out this week. First of many, I'm sure, because this boy is a bit of a buggar. He has the most mischievous twinkle in his eye and a huge laugh when he's being a buggar, too, it's all I can do to keep a straight face.

Class Dismissed

Talia is finally starting to show some interest in the alphabet, besides just making the Leap Frog letter toy be super annoying all. day. long. So, in an effort to nurture this new interest in letters, I've been trying to get her ready for nursery school this fall by having some "school time" everyday when Declan has a sleep. It's a good way to have some quality time with m'girl. She has a pretty good grasp on what the letters are and what sounds most of them make, so we're moving on.

Although Talia has had little interest in letters until recently, she has a pretty good vocabulary. So good that I fear my lousy artistic talent is no match for her. Here's what we worked on today:

Answer I was looking for "A is for ant."

Talia: "A is for insect!"

Answer I was looking for: "C is for cat."

Talia: "C is for Kitty!" (okay, that one was close.)

Answer I was looking for: "H is for happy face/ H is for hand."

Talia: "H is for glove!"

Answer I was looking for: "S is for snake."

Talia: "S is for anaconda!"

I give up.

If You Can't Beat 'Em....

This morning Talia refused to get dressed. After asking her a couple of times to get dressed so we could get on with our day, I finally gave her a time-out for not doing as she was asked. At the end of her time-out, she would not tell me she was sorry or get dressed, so I told her she had to stay in time-out until she was ready. After 24 minutes (that's 8 consecutive time-outs) I finally told her that jammies are for sleeping, and if she wasn't going to get dressed she needed to get back in her bed. She did, and promptly fell asleep.

Good old Monkey-See-Monkey-Do Declan couldn't bear to not be part of his big sister's terrible punishment - he promptly got his monkey & blanky and fell asleep on the floor beside Talia's bed.

After I checked on the 2 of them, I put Ruby down on my bed while I ran to the washroom, when I came out she had fallen asleep, too. At that point I decided to go with the majority and have a little nap as well. These kids are wise, a nice nap was just what we all needed.

Backyard Camping

Once upon a time, many moons ago, a Girl Guide got together with a guy from Kenora. Being a Girl Guide, and then a Girl Guide leader, she was used to camping in tents with many little people, having an exhausting but fun time. Plus, she had grown up in a camping family, and had spent all summer at the lake when she lived at home. Being from Kenora, her boyfriend was inherently "outdoorsy" - but also had a belief that you should be outdoorsy in your backyard (which includes rocks, lakes, rivers, bush, etc.) and then go home to your nice comfy bed to sleep.

So one year when this young couple had so many holiday days saved up they didn't know what to do with them all, the Girl Guide decided to make it her personal challenge to make that Kenora boy embrace camping. They got a great deal on a huge tent, booked a campsite in the Whiteshell, and headed off for a week of fantastic fun. So what if Kenora Boy literally ran into a bear cub while on his bike, provoking said bear to stalk them the remaining half of the Trans-Canada Trail that runs between West Hawk and Falcon Lake? So what if Girl Guide got the worst chest infection of her life and thought she was going to die on an air mattress in the woods? SO WHAT if they packed it in and spent the last half of their vacation in Kenora Boy's parents' house, being outdoorsy during the day and sleeping indoors like civilized people at night????? Tenting can still be fun, right? RIGHT?!?

So our experiment in tenting never inspired a love of camping within Rainer. Meh. We actually still used our tent for several summers - meeting up with my family in Clear Lake, etc. We even took it to Prince Edward Island one summer for a 2 week vacation, in which we had good weather, lots of fun, and an all-around great tenting experience. But we certainly don't plan our holidays around tenting excursions anymore. And it seems like a lot of work to go camping on a regular 2 day weekend, when there are so few free weekends in the summer and we have that pool calling our names and all. So we haven't had the tent out since Talia was born.

But lately I've been getting the camping itch - partly due to lots of friends buying campers, partly due to my parents selling their camper and not going to the lake for the first time I can remember. So I've been suggesting doing a little backyard camping all summer, and since Rainer is just such a good sport, he agreed.

Last night we set up the tent in the backyard:

Ruby was so impressed with our mad tent skillz:

We had a wienie roast complete with s'mores:

We let the kids stay up late, playing outside in their jammies as it grew darker and darker:

We put them to bed in the tent. Hard to believe our ginormous tent is almost too small even for backyard camping:

We woke up this morning to find Declan had embraced his first night of freedom from a crib or playpen - he'd started out beside one sister and ended up with the other:

And of course, everyone piled into Mom & Dad's nice warm bed when the morning chill had woken them all up:

It was so much fun!!

To Talia at Three

Dear Talia,

You turned three years old last week. Three years old!

You are officially a little girl. I only get glimpses now and then of the serious little newborn,



the roly-poly one year old,



and the still-babyish two year old you were.

You are growing up so fast! I guess you've had to, since you're the big sister. I love how you love your little brother and sister. You've only recently started to understand that Ruby can be your sister AND Declan's sister at the same time, and you love to remind me every morning that "Diss is my sista Wooby and Deckie's sista Wooby! She be bofe da sista!" You love being the big sister. You give Ruby her sucky and make her smile and giggle. Declan is your partner in crime, it seems you can read each other's minds somtimes! I hope you stay just as close to them for all of your days.

You're such a little Mama. As I'm typing this, you're sitting on the couch with the Boppy, breastfeeding Ted E. Bear and watching Dora. Soon you'll get up and do the "We Did It!" dance. I hope you continue to dance over all your accomplishments, both big and small.

You are bright and curious. You love to play with babies, Play-Doh, and your little kitchen. You love the idea of playing with lots of kids, and everyone you see is "my fwiend." But when the kids are actually around you, you're pretty shy. You can count to 12 or 15, depending on the day. You can say your alphabet but aren't too interested in identifying letters. You love to make crafts, cut with scissors, glue things, paint, and colour. Your favourite thing to draw is happy faces.

You love to play outside and your Daddy broke his hand putting together a playstructure for you, your brother, and your sister this summer. You are getting adventurous in the pool - you like to jump in and you can swim around by yourself in your Puddle Jumper. You like to watch Dora, Diego, and Caillou on TV, but the only movies you're interested in are the Toy Story movies. You love, love, love bugs! And you could spend the entire day playing in the mud - the dirtier, the better.

Your hair is crazy, curly, and out-of-control most days. People say you look like me - when we go to Gilbert Plains, we practically give people heart attacks because they think you are the ghost of me as a little girl. Will you look like me when you grow up? I don't know, when I look at you all I see is your Daddy's big, crooked grin. I love it as much on you as I do on him!

You fill our days with songs, giggles, tantrums, time-outs, hugs, questions, and even the occasional kiss (when I'm lucky!) You challenge us and delight us, surprise us and tease us. You make me happier than I ever thought I could be, and ready to pull my hair out, all at the same time. I can't wait to see what the next year with you will bring. Love you, Ladybug!

Mommy Got Back

Since Ruby was born I've lost 46lbs. That's way more than the small amount of weight I gained during my pregnancy (the upside to being sick for the entire time!) and my Dad even thinks I'm smaller now than I was in highschool. He's wrong, but it's nice that he's noticed the change. So I'm feeling pretty good about myself these days. Well, I was feeling pretty good about myself, until today.

Today we stayed inside to beat the heat. Yes, we have that pool in the backyard, but I can't manage all 3 of my babies in the pool by myself, it's too hot for Ruby to be outside and not in the water, and it's so hot Declan's non-walking legs get burned on the deck, concrete, etc. So.

Declan is pretty good at identifying body parts, but if I ask him "where's your nose?" he finds my nose instead of his. So today I was playing with him and working on body parts, with Talia jumping in here and there when she felt like it. All of a sudden I felt a little tap on my butt and Talia asked "Dat your bum, Mommy?" I said yes, and she said "WOW! Iss weally biiiiiiiiiiig!" Thanks, Tal.

Ha ha ha ha ha boo hoo hoo.

Random Summer Updates

I wrote a lovely, sentimental post about Talia's birthday earlier this week. After several days of Blogger refusing to publish it, (what the hell, Blogger?) it inexplicably disappeared. So since I'm still up waiting for the diapers in the washing machine, this is the best I can come up with right now:

- Talia had a fun birthday party with lots of little friends. There is a group of us here in town that have a little girl Talia's age and a little boy Declan's age, and most of those families came to the party. I love it!! I actually didn't think we'd get many people who were able to come, since it's lake season and all, but it was busy and chaotic and so much fun.

- We're waiting for Auntie Kylie, Uncle Chris and the kids to come this weekend. Can't wait to see them. I'm hoping we can sneak the kids off to Walmart or someplace to get their picture taken while we have all 5 of the grandkids together, it will be a nice gift for Rainer's parents.

- I'm pretty sure I broke my toe on the new playstructure. That is not awesome.

- Rainer just said the other day that it's been months since Declan sounded like a coffee perk when he breathed, and now he's been coughing his head off all night. Jinxed.

- Ruby's announcement/thank you cards finally came! Now to find time to get them written up and sent out before she's out of diapers.

- We have no daycare. It's fun to have lots of days to do summer things with the kiddies, but it's also harder to do things like big grocery trips or days of errands with multiple stops. I also think I should have tried harder to do things like, oh, I don't know... go to the dentist? get an oil change?... when I still had daycare.

- Talia loves my old Smurf collection. She calls them "Spoops" - I don't know why but I've gotta tell you, I'm not correcting her.

- I'm totally obsessed with that show "Oddities." Have you seen it? I love it!!

- I would like to go to bed before midnight one of these days. Yawn.